Anti Planking Law in Philippines

A group of students protested disrupted traffic in Manila on Sept 19, 2011. | Source

Students plank their protest on huge budget cuts | Source

What is it about Planking?

If you have logged onto Facebook or Twitter, chances are you will see posts and pictures of individuals planking. Planking has become a new phenomenon that has spread all across the world. Classified as a "game", planking involves laying face down with your arms aligned with your body, usually in public places. Planking is most fun for players when they find weird public places where they can plank and have friends take photos of them. While it does sound like a strange new craze, middle schoolers, high school students, and college students are taking part in this new game.

So it seems harmless right? Laying down face first in funny places and taking a picture sounds pretty harmless. While it sounds harmless, there have been serious planking injuries and even deaths. One death that made international news was a man who decided to plank on the corner walls of his seventh-floor balcony. The man did not position himself right and fell to his death causing floods of media attention.

Anti- Planking Law in the Philippines

You may be wondering why anyone would be trying to push an anti planking law. While some irresponsible "plankers" have been injured or even died from injuries sustained while planking, the fad all together seems pretty harmless. That is not the case in the Philippines. Advocates of the anti-planking law, including a current congressman, are pushing this legislation for one particular reason—protesters and activists are turning the fad into a weapon during strikes and protests. With the trend spreading over the Internet, protesters found that planking in the middle of the busy streets of the Philippines gets the attention they want during their mass protest actions. These political plankers, as they have been nicknamed, are planking for their rights so to speak or to highlight their political concerns and issues.

Should Planking Really Be Banned?

Millions of people are planking and only a small percentage of these individuals are planking for reasons that disrupt traffic and inconvenience the public, not to mention possibly violating a law or public ordinance. Castelo, the Congressman in the Philippines, believes that an anti-planking law should be passed as a universal code of student conduct. The purpose of the law is to ban planking "as a form of redress or grievance mechanism." Many people are under the assumption that the law would ban planking in the Philippines as a fun fad. That is not the case. The purpose is to keep protesters safe, out of busy streets and to avoid causing inconvenience to the public.

What Do People Have to Say About the Proposal?

Word of the anti planking law spread rapidly across the Internet. Most social media users are reportedly against the ban. School officials and public officials are certainly backing the law as they feel it will keep schools and the streets safe. In a sense, it also helps them avoid liability or being held to answer for potential accidents or injuries that may occur as a result of planking being conducted in campuses or public roads and highways.

When planking started, people never imagined it would receive the attention it has presently garnered. Just like all things in life, planking can be abused. The anti planking law is designed to make abuse of the fad illegal. Then again, is it absolutely necessary to legislate against something when common sense would be enough to avoid or prevent its negative consequences or abuse?

I think our Congress is better off spending their time working on legislation that will address more pressing needs and problems of the country as compared to worrying about activists planking on highways and snarling up traffic as part of their protest actions as authorities can haul them off anyway for obstruction of traffic and acting as a public nuisance.

Comments

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AUTHOR

Moira Garcia Gallaga

6 years agofrom Lisbon, Portugal

Loveofnight2, youth will be youth and they will somehow end up thinking up of some crazy stunt out of boredom or just for the heck of it. I just wish the legislators in my country spent more time dealing with more pressing problems than grandstanding on this latest stunt. there's already more than enough regulations and laws that can be used to curb this. Sorry for the delayed reply.

loveofnight

6 years agofrom Baltimore, Maryland

It neve ceases to amaze me, the things that the youth will come up with out of boredom.

loveofnight

6 years agofrom Baltimore, Maryland

It neve ceases to amaze me, the things that the youth will come up with out of boredom.

AUTHOR

Moira Garcia Gallaga

7 years agofrom Lisbon, Portugal

Thanks for your comment Drenguin. It's become a concern for some quarters, not so much due to the danger involved in the activity but more on the disruption it causes when employed in connection with street rallies and mass protest actions.

Drenguin

7 years agofrom Somewhere

Haha, this is pretty funny. I can't believe that it has become this much of a problem. I think it's kind of ridiculous that there is a ban but it looks like it is needed!

AUTHOR

Moira Garcia Gallaga

7 years agofrom Lisbon, Portugal

Thank you for your comment. Considering the inconvenience such a stunt would cause the general public I think it's a counter-productive tactic. I can't see how you aim to get people to be sympathetic to your cause if you're going to annoy them.

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